good morning. i know you think it every monday. where did the weekend go? i'm robin meade, and i'm so glad you're starting your week right here. morning sunshine. an unwelcome visitor history florida with strong winds and heavy rain and tropical storm claudette is the first of several storms stirring up trouble in atlantic. the mayor of will mauk rushed to help a screaming woman and got attacked with a metal pipe. did he announce? >> he might be at the tower. >> a week after a deadly midair crash over the hudson river, sight seeing tourists on manhattan skyline have resumed.

hear what the pilots are doing to avoid another disaster. hope you are doing well today. you know what? while your sleeping tropical storm claudette became the first named storm to hit the u.s. mainland this year. it came ashore another fort walton beach, florida. it's heading for southern alabama right now. top sustain winds are near 40 miles per hour with higher gusts. some coastal areas could see flooding. claudette caught some people from surprise. >> we saw the clouds and water, but we thought it was a regular evening shower. come to find out, tropical storm on the way. >> there are more storms out there right now as well. chris smith is in for bob once again today. good morning. >> we're continuing to track what's barely left of ana as well as hurricane bill, the first hurricane of this atlantic season. you can see ana making its way through the leeward islands. but our first hurricane with winds of 75 miles per hour.

ana's will be a remnant low bringing rainfall across parts of the caribbean and cuba making its way towards the gulf coast of the united states. at in the point we don't think it will continue to strengthen any as we go throughout the next five days. meanwhile, bill may pose a threat. right now it doesn't look like to the united states but maybe towards bermuda. it's forecast to be a major hurricane with winds of 115 to 120 miles per hour. the track is slightly different turning more to the right, but obviously these storm systems have a mind of their own, robin. we have to watch this carefully over the next few days. you don't want to mess around when you talk about a major category 3 hurricane. >> thanks so much. police arrested a man that they say atalked milwaukee's mayor with a metal pipe. they found the 20-year-old suspect and the alleged weapon yesterday. police say that he hit the mayor at a state fair saturday night after he tried to break up a fight between the suspect and

the grandmother of the suspect's daughter. >> he's in stable condition. i've talked to him personally. he's still got his good sense of humor. he is a -- he's a great brother and he's in good shape. he'll be fine. he did sustain some pretty significant injuries. >> police say that the mayor broke his hand when he punched the suspect. barrett could leave the hospital tomorrow, but what a story. dry weather and 12r0strong s make it dangerous for firefighters across california. 11 fires are now burning in the state. you're looking at heavy smoke over the santa cruz mountains. that's where hundreds returned home yesterday after an evacuation order was lifted. that fire has burned about 10 square miles but only halfway contained. a huge compromise may come on health care reform.

president obama may drop a government run insurance option from the overhaul. a plan to create nonprofit health insurance co-ops to compete with private insurance is being considered. the three democrats and republicans on the finance committee are negotiating that compromise. it's the only bipart zab effort so far. how does that work? richard lui will break it down in less than ten minutes. michael vick says he cried in prison because of the guilt he felt. we have more on the first interview since he's been out of prison and how he's settles in with the eagles. >> god morning. in an interview with "60 minutes" vick says he blame himself for bad decisions and understands why people des pies him and that the light bulb went off for him behind bars. >> the first day i walked into prison exami prison and they slammed that door, i knew the magnitude of the decisions i made. there's no way of explaining,

you know, the hurt and guilt that i felt. that was the reason i cried so many nights. >> meanwhile this weekend vick was back on the practice field for the first time in two years. he looked good from a football standpoint. his passes looked crisp and it looks like he lost no arm strength during his time off. needs to get back in football shape, and that will take more time. robin. >> the arm is just a natural. thank you. fans of marilyn monroe have a chance to be buried near her. a widow is selling the crypt above monroe's. it is now occupied by her late husband, but she's doing it to pay off her mortgage. the bidding on ebay is more than $2.7 million. okay. we have a couple of problems, and we've got them highlighted on the maps weatherwise today. first, tropical weather is coming inland. good morning. >> and then the other is across the midwest. we'll start off on the gulf coast where we're looking at

heavy rainfall this morning. it's not a huge area as far as the extent to how big tropical storm claudette is with winds of 40 miles per hour, but heavy rainfall coming in from fort walton beach back towards panama city and into the big ben portion of the florida. the heavy rainfall is back over and towards destin and panama city. expect to see very strong rainfall, possibly 3 to 5 inches of rainfall. we have flood watches and warnings in effect for parts of alabama as well into florida with the gustiest winds combined to the coastline of florida. about 30 to 45 miles per hour possible there. across the midwest severe weather possible from chicago stretching through st. louis, kansas city, towards denver. the primary threat from these thunderstorms today going to be from large hail and damaging wind. we also have the threat for some flooding mainly across missouri. one to two inches of additional rainfall possible here. of course, we want to talk more about air travel and let you know how this mess sorts itself out in just a bit. robin. >> it looks like a wet one. thank you very much. appreciate it.

keep an eye on wall street and your 401(k) today. the markets around the world are sharply lower, and it doesn't look better for wall street. the dow futures index shows triple digit losses. they say he after months of waiting for a turnaround investors are looking for good economic news to set up less bad economic news. the biggest bank fiasco this year could affect you whether you're a customer of theirs or not. you hear how colonial bancgroup's failure could shake up mortgage rates. úgs

in our salute to the troops today, a deployed sailor is getting the honors. he'll soon be home, but not soon enough for his gill friend. go ahead, tell us about him nina. >> good morning, robin. this is nina and this is a salute to my boyfriend, michael

gabriel lancaster. this is his first he deployment, and everything he does with his job seems to be really, really challenging, but he manages to conquer every difficult task. i am very proud of you, michael. i can't wait to see you again. i can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you. i will see you in hawaii soon. i love you. >> nina, what a great message. thank you. if you have somebody in the service and you want to salute them, go ahead, cnn.com/robin. the obama administration at mitts it may have to get rid of a public insurance option if it wants health care reform passed this year. yesterday democratic senator kent conrad said there are not enough votes to get that passed. >> the fact of the matter is there are not the votes in the united states senate for the public option. there never have been. so to continue to chase that rabbit, i think, is just a wasted effort. >> well, conrad is pushing for

health karaocare co-ops. >> basically you or your boss decide to pay into a co-op instead of a traditional insurance plan. the government would help provide startup money and backup cash reserves for these newco p co-ops. the he said the competition would force private insurers to lower costs as well. >> it's not exactly a new concept. aren't there co-ops on a smaller scale right now? >> credit unions are a form and public utility co-ops provide electric and phone service. when it comes to health care, many are industrial-specific. a co-op for farm workers in california and arizona covers about 15,000 there.

you have restaurants in new york city that pay as little as $50 a month to cover their employees, too. you can read more about how they work at cnn.com/robin. >> very good. richard, thank you, and welcome back. the largest bank failure this year could affect you, even if you never had an account in this place. regulators seized colonial bancgroup friday and sold most of its assets. an expert said interest rates could rise for home buyers, though, and people looking to refinance mortgages. colonial was a big player in mortgage warehouse lending which provides financing for home loans. they had almost 350 branches across florida, alabama, georgia, nevada and texas. it's the sixth largest bank failure in u.s. history. now, the fdic says colonial's closing will cost it almost $3 billion. meanwhile, regulators shut down four other banks on friday. they include two arizona banks, a las vegas bank, and a

pittsburgh bank. so far 77 federally insured banks have failed this year. you know, a savvy new jersey businessman is turning trash into treasure. we look at the rise to the top of the garbage heap in the small business success. >> you can call tom zaccy trashy and get away it. he's the co-founder of tara cycle. >> capri sun juice packages are messenger bags and pencil cases. >> their first product was a plant fertilizer made from worm excreement. now everything they make is about turning trash into treasure for cheap. >> we keep costs low by having waste for input. our cost is sewing our conversion but not the full course of the program. >> he dropped out of princeton in 2002 to focus on the

business. it's now a multi-million dollar company and he wants it to be a billion dollar company in ten years. >> just in 2008 we saved somewhere over 100 million units of waste. i think the planet is a better place if we succeed and become huge. i will do everything in my power to make this company a wild success. >> if you are a small business owner and watching this morning, we'd like to see your success story. go to cnn.com/robin and upload a video i-report about your business and share your info. you want to talk about david beating goliath, a little known player was able to beat tiger woods. >> robin, this is called by some the biggest upset in the history of this sport. how this guy, ye yang was able to beat tiger woods and do

something no one has ever done before.

you know, we're watching several severe weather systems right now.

claudette is the first tropical storm to hit the u.s. mainland this season. it came ashore this morning and it's weakening and heading into southern alabama. bill is the atlantic season's first hurricane, but it's way out there in the ocean. and ana has been downgraded to a tropical depression. it is southeast of st. croix. good morn, business travelers. it's back to the old grind today. i hope your flight is going well for you. here's chris. >> if you're flying to the east coast, much better than last week, but the middle part of the country and southern part of the country we have problems. let's look at atlanta, georgia where we're going to see temperatures around 86 degrees. you can see low clouds right now. no air travel delays at the very moment, although a few showers and thunderstorms could slow it down by a half hour later on today. more problems anticipated in the following locations, new orleans and pensacola see more showers and thunderstorms and denver and

kansas city and st. louis. you'll see strong to severe thunderstorms. that will be the case in indianapolis, detroit and also chicago, robin, where the biggest delays will be today. >> thank you. new york schools are trying to avoid a swine flu eighty break. they hope to have a public school pln by the first day of school, september 9th. one idea is requiring students to watch their hands several times a day, but that's not been approved. san francisco commuters have been spared a travel nightmare today. a strike that threatened to cripple the train system has been avoided. the mayor says the city reached a tentative deal with the union reps yesterday. they were fighting a 7% pay cut. a strike would have stranded more than 300,000 rail system riders. it was a welcome home nearly 40 years in the making. >> the screaming eagle round of applause for our veterans who

served in vietnam. here for you in about 15 minutes veterans from the vietnam war are finally honored by friends and family. they were probably always honored by their friends and family, but they're honored in a welcome home ceremony all these years later. a virtually unknown player beat tiger woods and he's the first asian-born player to win a major championship. rafer, good morning. his reaction says a lot. >> robin, we mirrored that as we were watching this. i couldn't believe that this guy, this virtual unknown was beating tiger woods. who is he? y.e. yang of south korea. he didn't take up golf until he was 19 years old. he like everybody else trailed tiger until this incredible shot on 14. that put him up ahead of tiger

for two strokes for an eagle. on 18 this guy just showed nerves of steel like the weight of the moment never seemed to envelope him. he put himself ahead to beat woods to become the first asian-born player to win a major. he talked about how he was able to stay so calm. >> i wasn't that nervous honest li because it's a game of golf. it's not like you're in an octob octogon where you're fighting tiger and he's going to bite you. >> speaking of the first mma fight televised to feature women as a main event. they are brutal as men here. this is chris handing gina her first defeat scoring a technical knockout. just brutal stuff. >> she is tough. >> she's a tough woman. speaking of tough video, check this out. dodgers pitcher -- this was over the weekend. he gets beamed in the head.

he says it's lucky to be alive after he was drilled in the head by a line drive. he's now believed to have suffer aid concussion. >> that's awful. >> he's out of the hospital. that's the good news. he's not the only one that suffered a scary blow to the head this weekend. >> it's a scary position, the pitcher. the new york yankees take a step to end hunger. all the unused food is going to a charity that brings the food to local soup kitchens. the charity, rock and ramp it up, founded by musicians takes unused food from concerts and 31 sports teams to local churches wo give it to the elderly and those in need. we tip our hat to the yankees and to that charitable organization. >> maybe more stadiums will do that. you hate to see food go to waste when people are hungry. it's not going to cost anybody any more that it goes to somebody else than the trash bin. thank you. appreciate it. a woman who was stranded in

kenya for three months is finally back home. >> i'm really, really happy to come home. i'm glad my nightmare is over. >> wait to hear what she had to do to prove who she is. 8

the florida panhandle is gelgt pounded by the first named storm to hit the u.s. mainland  this season. tropical storm claudette could flood some areas on its way to southern alabama. hurricane bill is in south atlantic moving slowly toward the caribbean. ana is groun gradowngraded a tr depression. mike huckabee is visiting israel. he says the u.s. has taken too harsh a stance on the issue. the u.s. is pressuring israel to stop building settlements on land that the palestinians claim for a future state. no fewer than 11 fires are burning in different parts of california.

dry weather and the wind are not helping either. this is the heavy smoke over the santa cruz mountains. the fire is huge, though. it's burned more than 10 square miles. peter jackson's "district 9" was number one at the box office over the weekend. it brought in $37 million. g.i. joe slipped to number two with 22.5 mill, and "the time traveler's wife" came in third earning 19 mill. those are the top stories on a sleepy monday. i see you. not really, but i'm robin meade, and glad you're seeing me. president obama spent the weekend out west trying to convince people that his health care overhaul has their best interests at heart. he used a town hall meeting in colorado to dispel myths about provisions in mhis proposal. he talked about his late grandmother when he dismissed claim one included death panels for senior citizens. >> i just lost my grandmother

last year. i know what it's like to watch somebody you love who is aging deteriorate and have to struggle with that. so the notion that somehow i ran for public office or members of congress are in this so that they can go around pulling the plug on grandma? i mean, when you start making arguments like that, that's simply dishonest. >> well, the president also softened his stance on a public health insurance option that leaves the door open for a senate proposal to create health insurance co-ops. it's the only proposal so far to get any bipartisan support. richard lui, good morning to you. what are the pros examine cand ? >> we'll start with the pros. co-ops, the big thing here

nonprofit. we have to pay less than if you're a member of a co-op. because they represent so many members, they have better bargaining power with insurance providers. some employers who use co-ops are saying that quotes to cover workers are usually 10% to 15% lower than the larger providers out there. >> it sounds like a saving. what are the downsides to the co-op idea? >> usually health insurance co-ops operated in localized markets, examine critics say they would not work on a large scale. also co-ops have a higher risk of insolvency. some have gone bankrupt in the past leaving doctors and employers on the hook for unpaid claims. the senate proposal would likely require the government to pick up the fabric if a co-op ran into financial trouble. co-ops are leg regulated than larger insurance providers, but expect new regulations to end up in the final version of any senate bill as we get those. >> still discussion to be had here. if you want to learn more about how co-ops work, go to

cnn.com/robin and check the facts on the overall health care debate. chicago is shutting down to save money. it's the first of three reduced service days, today is. that means no trash pickup, no street sweeping. city offices are closed, and employees won't be paid. local media reports that this could save the city more than $8 million over three days. the other two are later in the year. police and the fire departments will not be affected. a woman got stranded in kenya for three months because officials said she didn't look like her passport photo. true, she was visiting from canada, and she says she showed several i.d.s including her driver's license and even a dry-cleaning receipt. officials finally agreed to a dna test to prove her identity. >> i'm really, really happy to come back. i'm glad my nightmare is over. >> she feels better today than

ever before. she's canadian from day one. she feels canadian now. >> well, she said that it's an ordeal that she really would like to forget. a world famous movie star says he was detained at an airport over his last name. bollywood star khan says immigration officials at newark international questioned him for two hours because his last name raised a flag on their computer. >> they kept telling me, you know, it's because your name is common and i was too polite to ask too common to what? >> he was in the united states promoting a film about racial profiling. people were really upset about this in india. the indian government said it is taking this up with the u.s. embassy there. a u.s. customs official told the associated press that the questioning was part of a routine process. a group the veterans got the welcome they missed when they returned home from vietnam.

this special ceremony was held at ft. campbell, kentucky. many vets say when they originally came back from vietnam, they were often met with angry protestors and not welcome home ceremonies. a spokesman for ft. campbell says he hopes there are more ceremonies like this one at other bases. a possible tornado ripped up trees and tossed around cars. this is in southern florida. according to local reports, 23 homes in cape coral were damaged. there were also three fires because of lightning. neighbors met yesterday cleaning up the damage. >> the power was out. we couldn't close the garage door and stuff was flying in the garage and sucking out of the garage. it was crazy. >> as everything swirled and slapped around, things were over here. these are not my stuff. >> yeah. really sounds like a mess. we're getting to the time of year where the tropics are getting a little bit busier.

we have ana, bill, and claudette, all a concern today in some way. good morning, chris in for bob. >> good morning. you have to go back 25 years to find where you had the a, b, and c storms out in the ocean all at the same time. that's what we have right now with claudette making landfall. we have ana barely holding onto its strength across the caribbean, and bill is more rro bust across the care bin. claudette will continue to weaken into a tropical depression over the next few hours as it makes its way inland through parts much alabama, mississippi and up through tennessee. it will bring heavy rainfall across the area we're talking about upwards of 5, 6 inches of rainfall possible in some areas with this. meanwhile, we continue to see this area down here to the south, and then a second area of storminess across parts of the midwest. we start off down with claudette showing the radar stretching from pensacola over to panama city towards appear latch cola.

heavy rainfall is not out of the question. we could see spin-up tornadoes similar to ones robin showed you a minute ago. three to five inches rainfall across alabama, florida and stretching into parts of mississippi. the gustiest of the winds along the coastline. you can see wind gusts possible around 30 to 45 miles per hour. meanwhile, severe weather is the big story across parts of the midwest stem ceretching from ch to denver. the primary threat from these thunderstorms already ongoing at this early hour. you might be in bed right now hearing rumbles outside. you have big thunderstorms capable of producing 1 to 2 inches of additional rainfall. we'll continue to see these showers make their way through parts of missouri. we see these showers spread towards chicagoland. i guess government taking a day off in chicago, robin, kind of good news. they don't have to deal with all the rainfall. >> okay. what's the use of sweeping the streets if it rains on it and

wash it away? is that what you're saying? >> exactly. >> we'll see how people feel about trash not being picked up. kiss is releasing its first new albums in 11 years and it will only be available at walmart and sam's club. it's called "sonic boom" and will include a live dvd. look out for it on october 6th. are they still rocking without their shirts on? a deadly crash is not stopping tourists over new york city's hudson river busy or not. a pilot describes the crowded traffic up there. also, free food for your kids. that's how restaurants are trying to lure you in. that's good news in a bad economy, and you will hear exactly where your kids can eat for free.

an american civilian working with u.s. troops in eastern afghanistan has been killed. we're still waiting for the details, but what we know now is that he was with a patrol that was attacked by insurgents. we see a lot of activity right now from security forces ahead of thursday's presidential elections there. tourists and sight seers are clam moring to see manhattan tan skyline from high above even though there was a deadly crash last year. it is a busy highway in the air basically. here's a firsthand look at how businesses busy. >> just like driving.

>> isn't it scary? it's like by line of sight who can you spot. the deadly crash between a tourist helicopter and a small plane killed nine people. the faa has formed a group to recommend air traffic changes in that area. they have two weeks to come up with suggestions. the world markets are showing some troubling signs. first, china stock market plunged almost 6% to its lowest level in two months. oil prices slid below $66 a barrel, and investors may be jittery after friday's report showing weak u.s. consumer confidence. dow futures are down almost 2 pers2%. now for the good news in the bad economy. your kids can eat for friday at some restaurants. you ever notice those signs? "usa today" reports the international house of pancakes

will offer free kid meals every night for a month. also, fazoli's has a kid eat free deal on tuesdays and weekends. kids can eat free at ikea on labor day weekend even if their parents buy nothing. interesting. we have one storm across the southeastern u.s. and another one is losing steam and one big enough to be called a hurricane out there. michael vick is back on the practice field. we'll see how he did.

the storm season is here. tropical storm claudette is the first to hit the u.s. mainland this season. it came ashore near fort walton beach, florida this morning. right now it's weakening and heading into southern alabama. bill is the atlantic season's first hurricane, but it's still way out in the ocean at this point. it became a hurricane this morning. ana has been downgraded to a tropical depression. it is southeast of st. croix. we'll keep you updated on all three storms. starting today doctors at va hospitals will routine hiv tests to vets who get medical care.

under the new policy the vets have to verbally consent to the test instead of having to sign a consent form. the va hopes that the new way will encourage more to get tested. tiger woods did the unthinkable. he lost! no. a major tournament when he held the lead on sunday. he was doing excellently -- >> flawlessly for three and a half days. after that it was just this. you could just see the frustration on his face. it's not something we're used to seeing, robin. woods has never lost a major leading going into the final day. 11 straight times. he started the final round by two strokes, but it was amazing to see just the shot that normally fall for him kept misses one right after the other. the guy who beat him? one of the most amazing cinderella stories, a virtual unknown. we'll have his incredible story in the next half hour. michael vick was back on the practice field for the first time in two years.

he ran the eagles scout team offense where they try to simulate their next opponent, and his passes looked sharp. it appears that vick has lost no arm strength in the time that he's been off. now, it's still a while before he's in football shape, but the eagles could have a quarterback controversy by the end of the year. the starting quarterback wanted him in there. vick said he cried when he was in prison. more on that in ten minutes. get ready to to see history being made. the two fastest men in the world, there was no drama at all. mine, it was not even close. bolt shattered his own world record in the 100 meters running at 9.58 seconds. he beat himself, his own world record, by over a tenth of a second. he's getting faster, and he's only 23 in four days. >> he's amazing. david wright could be done for the year after this poor guy took a 95-mile-per-hour fastball right to the head.

he was beamed by matt cain on saturday. he laid there motionless for a long time. he was taken to the hospital and released on sunday. reportedly he still has a headache and is experiencing concussion-like symptoms. the team manager said it was a possibility he could miss the rest of the year. three-time cup champ joe johnson was two laps away from winning the race and he ran out of gas. how does that hurt, right? this team now -- this is in two months now johnson's team has gambled thinking he could make it without fueling. that paved the way for brian vickers. johnson was made. vickers was happy, and that's a look at sport. >> i guess it's all a calculation. that's two times it hasn't paid off? >> in two months at the same track, too. >> who is brian vickers? >> he doesn't have as many career wins. >> i have to physical it closer. a bakery in michigan said it set a new world record for the biggest cup cake. it's part of the dream cruise event in detroit.

the thing is about 1200 pounds. earlier they tried to make one even bigger, but it expandzed so much that it dislodged a heating rod in some dislodged a heating in the oven. if you sell stuff on line, we have a warning for you. hln money expert clark howard says you should know about a very unfriendly fraud and how to protect yourself against that. >> i have a special warning for you if you're a business person who has an e-commerce site. there is a new, hot rip-off going on that's being referred to as friendly fraud. i don't think anything friendly about it. i don't even know how they came up with that expression. but this is how it works. you sell something to someone on your e-kmo hi-commerce-commerce

it to them, and then they dispute it, saying they never received it even though they did. there's also a dispute with expedia where they buy a ticket and then say, oh, i can't go on that trip. you need to send it true tracking and tracing and have them sign for it so there's no dispute later whether you sent the goods or not. i'm clark howard. for more ways to protect yourself, go to cnn.com/clark d cnn.com/clarkhoward. >> clark will help you save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off. see him here on hln at noon eastern on saturdays and sundays. >> i know that person has to be looking for this ring and she must be pretty sick about it. >> that was enough to convince this woman to hunt down the

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everybody stretch together. good morning. i'm robin meade. an unwelcome visit or hit florida with strong winds and heavy rain and tropical storm claudette is just one of many storms in the tropics. a woman got attacked by a man with a pipe! a happy homecoming for a woman trapped in kenya for three months! overnight, tropical storm

claudette became the first named storm of the season to hit the mainland. it came to fort walton, florida. it is weakening. some coastal areas could see flooding. claudette caught some people by surprise. >> we saw the clouds on the water but we thought it was just a regular evening shower, but come to find out, a tropical storm on the way. >> well, there are more storms out there right now as we speak, and meteorologist chris is in for bob van dillen. thanks for coming back. it's way out there, but it's a big gee. >> we have hurricane bill, and it's forecast to become a category 3 hurricane, and it looks like a perfect hurricane spinning behind me here. there's also ana barely holding onto tropical characteristics. it is forecast to make its way

across the caribbean, across cuba and maybe to the florida keys. but you'll notice, it mainly is a tropical depression, so the main thing will be rainfall, although we'll watch it in the days ahead. hurricane bill, the forecast turning it a little farther and more to the right which would take it more parallel to the u.s. coastline and right now does not pose a threat to the east coast and the u.s. it poses a threat to bermuda as a tropical 3 hurricane. we'll talk more about the radar and what's going on in florida in just a few minutes. z >> thank you very much. police caught the man who they say attacked the mayor with a metal pipe. police say he hit mayor barrett after barrett tried to break up a fight between the suspect and

the suspect's daughter. he stepped up and did the right thing. he called 911 and tried to calm the situation between a grandmother and her grandchild. as a result of his actions, tom was attacked and struck repeatedly with a metal object. tom's efforts protected the woman and the child. his efforts also protected members of our family as well. we're extremely proud of tom's selflessness and his courage. >> police say the mayor broke his hand when he punched that suspect. barrett could leave the hospital tomorrow. a huge compromise may be may be coming on health care reform. president obama may drop a government-run insurance option on his overhaul. now the three dems and three republicans on the senate finance committee are negotiating that compromise.

it's the only bipartisan effort so far. so how would a co-op work for you? richard lui is going to break down that senate proposal for you in less than ten minutes. answers, answers, you want answers. i don't blame you. dry air and strong winds are making it tough for the firefighters in santa cruz, california. that fire has burned about ten square miles but is only about halfway contained. new york schools are trying to avoid a new swine flu outbreak this year. that's especially at st. francis prep. it hit hard last spring. they hope to have a public school plan by the first day of school, september 9. one idea is to require students to wash their hands several times a day, but that has not been approved. michael vick said he cried in prison because of the guilt he felt.

rafer has since interviewed vick, by the way, since getting out of prison. >> within the first few minutes, he didn't make any excuses. says he blames himself for his decisions. he understands why people despies him, and the light bulb went off after he was locked up. >> the first day i went to prison and he slammed the door, i knew the magnitude of the decisions that i made. there's no way to explain it, the hurt and the guilt that i felt. that was the reason i cried so many nights. >> meanwhile, he was back on the practice field this weekend. this is the first time in two years we've seen vick practice, and he looked pretty good. his past from a football standpoint, his passes look crisp, and it doesn't appear he's lost any arm strength during that time off. he still has to get back into football shape, and that will take some time, but he will see

the field sometime this season. if you need help, do not call the british consulate. that is a statement from the british services web site. they also said their consulate cannot help you pay your credit card bills or give you a recipe for jam. the consulate says those are actual phone calls for help and they need to qualify what they really do. a chance to be buried near her. a woman is selling the crypt right near marilyn monroe. she's doing it to pay her mortgage. the bid on ebay is now at $2.7 million. six minutes past the hour. we have been watching where tropical storm claudette came inland and where it's making rain right now.

chris is in for bob. good morning. >> good morning, robin. heavy rainfall this morning along the gulf coast from pensacola stretching all the way to tallahassee, florida. you can see intense rain bands. in some of these rain bands, i would not be surprised if you saw a few weak tornadoes spinning around here, so you have to keep a weather eye, say, from appalachia cola. stretching up into parts of alabama and mississippi where three to five inches of rainfall going to be possible. winds are generally out of the south to southeast, but they're only about five to 15 miles an hour. it's possible we could see gusts along the coastline of 35 miles an hour. strong thunderstorms going on in parts of the midwest. you expect them to fire up this afternoon. they're going on now, so you're getting awakened.

these storms moving back up into illinois, parts of indiana. chicago, you are dealing with showers and thunderstorms today. it's raining right now across chicagoland. meanwhile, you're looking at heavy rainfall stretching its way across parts of kansas. that's making its way across the kansas city area. this part of the country going to remain wet. intense heat and dry weather today. we'll see high temperatures across parts of the northeast. 95 to 100 deegsgrees. let me take you to washington, d.c. where you're not going to deal with rain today but bright sunshine already shining on the nation's capitol. about 94 degrees. you'll see 95 degrees tomorrow. we'll keep 94 degrees when you finally drop down into the 80s. you're either sweating or needing the umbrella today across the nation. >> keep an eye on wall street and your 401(k) today.

the markets around the world are sharply lower, and it doesn't look like it's going to be any better on wall street. after months of waiting for a turnaround, investors want to raise the bar. they want good economic news instead of just less bad news. they want the real thing. the biggest bank fiasco this year could affect you, even if you never had an account there. you're going to hear how colonial bank group's failure could mess up mortgage rates for the rest of us.

oh, my gosh, you're just too tired, arntd you, for a monday morning? i'll try to wake you up here. while you're doing that, let's salute our troops today. a deployed sailor is going to get the honors. he's going to be home soon, but not soon enough. >> hi, robin, this is nina, and this is a salute to my boyfri d

boyfriend. he manages to conger every difficult task. i am very proud of you, michael. i can't wait to see you again, and i can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you, and i will see you in hawaii soon. i love you. >> so sweet. thank you, nina. if you have someone in the service, you can salute them, too. go to cnn.com/robin. so the largest bank failure could affect you even if you never had an account there. all accounts, by the way, are fdi insured up to $250,000, but colonial was a big player in the mortgage business and experts said the interest rates could rise for people in the market for a mortgage because of this. colonial had almost 350 branches across florida, alabama, georgia, nevada, texas.

it is the sixth largest bank failure in u.s. history. the fdic said colonial's closing will cost it almost $3 billion. meanwhile, regulators shut down four other banks on friday. they include two arizona banks, a las vegas bank and a pittsburgh bank. so far 77 federally insured banks have failed this year. gay men are being targeted at alarming rates in iraq. that's according to a new human rights watch report. and one baghdad neighborhood may be a hotbed for the attacks. that story is new for you in about 30 minutes. the obama administration admits it may have to get rid of a public insurance option if it wants to get health care reform passed this year. democrat senator kent conrad said there just aren't enough votes to get that passed. >> the fact of the matter is there aren't enough votes in the senate for the public option. there never have been. so to continue to chase that

rabbit, i think, is just a wasted effort. >> conrad is pushing for co-opes as an option. how would a co-op work? >> hi, robin. basically, you and your boss could decide to pay into a co-op instead of a traditional insurance plan and then the co-op would decide how to pay its members. they would provide some back-up money to insure the costs but they would be privately run. co-ops would force private companies to lower their rates as well. utility co-ops provide electrical and phone service around the country. when it comes to health care co-ops, many existing co-ops are industry specific. colorado and arizona, that covers about 15,000 people there, and restaurants in new

york city can pay as little as $50 a month to cover their employees. you can learn more on cnn.com/rob cnn.com/robin. we'll have more on the pros and cons coming up. let's take a live look at one of the busiest airports in the world, atlanta, georgia where we're looking at cloudy skies right now. that could cause some air travel delays this morning. thunderstorms possible this afternoon with a high temperature of 86 degrees. more problems down along the gulf coast from pensacola back to new orleans. you will see showers and thunderstorms as you go throughout the day causing delays. birmingham, that's because of tropical storm claudette continuing to make its way up to alabama. denver and st. louis, parts of stormsz across the country. we'll probably see the biggest delays today well over an hour thanks to thunderstorms already getting going today.

talk about david beating golia goliath. i'm watching baseball because it is all sewn up, right? this is one of the most incredible things i've seen on a golf course, perhaps the biggest upset in the history of the sport. how this man, y.e. yang, was able to beat tiger woods and do something nobody has ever done before.

we've got several severe

weather systems on the radar. tropical storm claudette is the first to hit u.s. mainland this season. it came to shore near fort walton beach, florida this morning. it is weakening and headed to atlanta. bill is the atlantic's season's first hurricane, and ana has been downgraded to a tropical depression. two planes crashed in mid-air. they were rehearsing acrobatic maneuvers for an air show near moscow. one of the pilots was killed. one woman on the ground was seriously injured and four others may have been hurt. a virtual unknown. beat tiger woods? he is the first asian-born player to win a major championship when it comes to golf. rafer, good morning.

>> good morning to you, robin. when you watch this happen, i just couldn't believe it was actually happening. >> tiger was doing great. >> tiger was doing great and tiger never loses when he's out in front in a major championship, but this guy, y.e. yang of southeast asia, didn't even take up golf until he was 21. tiger was playing it since he was 2. yang was feeling it and he just kept his calm. tiger just kept missing shot after shot after shot, so yang becomes the first player to ever win a major, and he talks about how he kept his cool. >> i wasn't that nervous because honestly, it's a game of golf. it's not like you're in an octagon where you're fighting

tiger. >> the first fight ever televised to feature women as a main event. this is girl stuff. this is not for faint of heart. she is beating her, scoring a technical knockout. a scary moment on the diamond. hiroki kuroda says he's lucky to be alive after this line drive hit him in the head. this is on saturday. he went to the hospital. he is now out of the hospital, believed to have suffered a concussion. oh, it's hard to watch. he's not the only one who suffered a scary blow to the head this weekend. we'll have more on that later on. the new york yankees are taking a step to end hunger. this is a great idea. all of their unused food goes to a group that takes it to local soup kitchens. the charity, rock and wrap tup,

takes unused food from sports events and gives it to charity and those in need. 150,000 pounds, they say, has been saved and passed on as a result of this charity. >> i'm so glad people are willing to donate to that charity because it is going to go to a dumpster somewhere. so why not give it to people who would love to have a meal, you know? thank you very much. >> thank you. travelers are going through a nightmare today. a strike that could cripple the rail system today has been averted. john yettaw was taken to the homt after arriving in thailand yesterday. his family said that he's diabetic and that three months in prison really took a toll.

senator jim webb of virginia negotiated yettaw's release. so back to the storm systems. we have three storms of a tropical nature that we're watching, including the first hurricane of the atlantic season. find out where they are, where they're headed. and a woman stranded in kenya for three months is finally home.

the florida panhandle is getting soaked right now by the first named storm to hit the u.s. mainland this season. tropical storm claudette could flood some areas on its way to southern alabama. meanwhile, hurricane bill is in the south atlantic moving slowly toward the caribbean. ana has been downgraded to a tropical depression. getting a little busy. former presidential candidate mike huckabee is visiting israel for four israeli settlements. he says the u.s. is taking too hard a stance on the issue. the u.s. is under pressure to start building settlements on land. no fewer than 11 fires are

burning in different parts of california today. the dry weather and wind aren't helping very much. this is heavy smoke over the santa cruz mountains where an evacuation order was lifted. the fire is huge. it has already burned more than ten square miles. those are just a few of the headlines we're following this morning. just wanted to follow you, see how you're doing. morning, sunshine. i'm robin meade. president obama spent the weekend trying to convince people that his health care overhaul has their best interest at heart. he's in a town hall meeting in colorado to dispel some myths about his proposal. he talked about his late grandmother when he dismissed claims that one house bill would dismiss so-called death panels for senior citizens. >> i just lost my grandmother last year. i know what it's like to watch somebody you love who is aging deteriorate and have to struggle

with that. so the notion that somehow i ran for public office or members of congress are in this so they can go around pulling the plug on grandma? i mean, when you start making arguments like that, that's simply dishonest. >> well, the president also softened his stance on a public health insurance option. that leaves the door open for a senate proposal to create a health insurance co-op. it is the only proposal so far, by the way, to get any bipartisan support. correspondent richard lui, good morning to you. the proposal of a health care co-op. >> let's start with the big pro here, rob, and simply you got low premium costs. some already using co-ops saying the price is 10 to 15% lower. reaching the bottom line on your

premium, and one expert telling the new york times they're often exempt from certain taxes. that's a reason they're able to lower their costs. they also have stronger gar bargaining power with doctors. critics saying health insurance coe-opposite will not work on a large scale, robin. they have typically operated in lower markets. there is also a higher in solvency risk here. some have gone bankrupt in the past, leaving doctors ask lawyers on the hook for unpaid claims, so they would like the government to pay in such cases. co-ops are also less regulated than larger insurance providers. again, robin, expect new rules in the senate version to deal with that. >> thank you very much. if you want to know more about the health care debate and the reform and how it could affect you and your family, well, we have some answers. check out cnn.com/robin.

people may still be buried in the debris of a horrific suicide attack. the atta least 19 people were killed and seven were wounded. they saw what they missed when they returned home from vietnam. this special ceremony was held at fort campbell, kentucky. they said when they returned from vietnam, they were often met with angry demonstrators. they hope there are more ceremonies like this at other bases. a world-famous movie star says he was detained at an airport over his last name.

bollywood star was questioned over two hours because his last name raised a question on their computer. >> they kept telling me it's because your name is khan. >> he was in the u.s. promoting a film about racial pro filing. people were upset about this in india, really upset. the indian government says it has taken the issue up with a u.s. embassy there, and they tell the associated press the questioning was part of a routine process. a possible tornado ripped up trees and tossed around cars in south florida yesterday. according to local reports, 23 homes in cape coral were damaged. there were also three fires because of the lightning. >> the power was out. we couldn't just close the garage door, things were sucking out of the garage. it was crazy. >> as everything swirled and

slapped around, and flew around, things are over here. these are not my stuff. >> the cost to repair the 11 mostly damaged homes will be about $100,000, so that gifves you an idea about the extent of the damage. we are watching some tropical storms today. one of them hit the mainland today. here is chris for bob. >> we have three named storms at the same time, a, b and c named storms for the first time since 1984. we have hurricane bill across the at lank and tropical storm ana continuing to cross the caribbean. we will watch those carefully for you. right now we are concerned with tropical storm claudette which made landfall early this morning across the florida panhandle with winds at 15 miles an hour. you can see it stretching along appalachia cola back to the pensacola area. plet take you live to pensacola,

florida. right now the rain is holding off for the moment. you have a chance of rainfall, obviously, in pensacola. temperature about 66 degrees, temperatures heading closer to 90. but we'll keep a close look at the thunderstorms over the next few days. three to five inches going to be possible. that does include the pensacola area stretching to panama city, appalachiacola and even further down the mississippi. along the coastline, we are seeing 30 to 40-mile-an-hour winds along parts of the gulf coast. rain will be very heavy across parts of the southeast. we are going to see these very heavy rainfall totals, three, four, five inches going to be possible. meanwhile, across the northwest, going all the way to denver, we are looking for showers and thunderstorms continuing to push their way across parts of

kansas, back to missouri, stretching up into chicago. one to two implnches of rainfal possible in kansas city. that's in addition to the rainfall you've already seen across this region. meanwhile, back up into chicago, showers and thunderstorms are pushing through chicago. get ready in detroit. right now it is dry but you're going to see this rainfall push into your neighborhood as well, so that's going to cause some travel problems as we go through the rain today. meanwhile, we continue to see showers and thunderstorms back across kansas. you see this line here, gusty winds, quite a bit of lightning, also the possibility of large hail with these thunderstorms as they continue to push off to the east. robin, just to upgrade you, claudette was downgraded from a tropical storm to a tropical depression, moving as it continues into alabama.

it continues to move up through alabama and into mississippi later today. >> appreciate it. people are lining up to fly over new york city's hudson river, still, so you're going to see the view from the helicopter without leaving your couch. the deal is there was a deadly collision and some people are saying it's just too crowded up there. you'll see. your kids can get free food at some restaurants. that's some good news in a bad economy. hear exactly where your kids can eat for free day by day. @

. iraq's government is being urged to crack down on attacks and killings against gay men there. hundreds of gay men have been attacked in iraq in recent months. earlier this year, several gay men's bodies were found there with derogatory terms written on the their chests. tourists are still scrambling to take tours even though there was a mid-air collision over the hudson river. it is very crowded in the air. take a look.

well, the deadly crash between a tourist helicopter and a small plane killed nine people. the faa has formed a group to recommend air traffic chajz in the area. they have two weeks to come up with suggestions, but you saw for yourself how busy it was, at least on that day. stocks fell sharply today. china stock market plunged almost 6%, to its lowest level in two months. oil prices slid below $66 a barrel. investors may be jittery after the dow futures were down. your kids can eat for free at several restaurants. international house of pancakes will offer free meals every night for a month. also fazoli's are offering free

meals and ikea, kids can eat free on weekends, even if you, the parent, buys nothing. so you can plan for every day, but you'll be paying for your own meal. but kids are free. chris is here for travelers on monday. good morning. >> good morning, robin. let's go ahead and talk about where we're going to be seeing those delays from pensacola back over toward new orleans. you'll see showers and thunderstorms today. as i said a moment ago, pensacola, 100% chance of rain and gusty winds as well. that rain moving to birmingham. we'll see scattered showers and thunderstorms around atlanta. across the heart of the country, denver, kansas city, st. louis. that stretches from indianapolis to detroit as well as chicago. showers and thunderstorms expected today. probably the biggest delay is in chicago. we've got one storm heading

across the southeastern united states. there is another one losing steam and one big enough to be called a hurricane is still brewing there. plus, michael vick is back on the practice field, so how is the arm looking?

good morning. we have just learned that claudette has been weakened to a tropical depression. it came a shore as a tropical storm near fort walton beach, florida overnight. the first named storm to hit the u.s. mainland this season is heading into southern alabama now. bill is the atlantic season's first hurricane. it is way out there, though. see that? ana has been downgraded to a tropical depression in st. croix. so we're watching all three of those storms. tiger held the lead until sunday. he was a bear and then something happened. maybe a bigger deal for the guy who ended up winning. >> tiger never loses a major

tournament. >> is anyone else having trouble hearing you? >> sorry about that. it's not about me. let's talk about him. this was amazing, because tiger, when he leaves a major tournament on the last day, he doesn't lose. imagine michael jordan, shot after shot after shot. this is how he looked. when we watched this happen, we couldn't believe it. tiger has not lost a major this year. the guy who beat him, a total cinderella story. more on him next hour. for the first time in two years, vick ran the eagles offense. that's where they try to a simulate their opponents. he looked good. the guy has not lost any arm strength. it will be a while before he's in football shape. he also said he cried in prison. more on that later. why this could have a positive experience off the field.

i emphasize "could." these two men are fast as lightning. u usain bolt beat his own record. .11 was his final time. the other guy could be do-- dav done for the year. he took a 94--mile-an-hour baseball. he's experiencing some concussion-like symptoms. three-time cup jimmie johnson was two laps away from winning sunday's nascar race and he ran out of gas.

it is the second time in two months that he has gambled, thinking he can make it without refueling and he lost. it happened on this track, same thing. that paved wait for brian vickers. this is career win. that is a look at sports. robin. >> ran out of gas? i understand it is a gamble, all about the mathematics, get in there and been like, whoo that is great. >> but twice on the same track? >> thank you. if you like your cell phone lines, here is a warning that clark howard says you should know about an unfriendly act called friendly fraud and how to protect yourself from it. >> i have a special warning for you if you are a business person who has an e-commerce site there is a new hot ripoff going on that is being referred to as friendly fraud. i don't see anything about it, i don't even know how they came one that expression. this is how it works. you sell something to someone on your e-commerce site, you send

to them and then they dispute the charge with their credit card company saying they didn't receive the merchandise, even though they did. this is also happening, according to the "wall street journal" to expedia, that people are buying airline tickets and later saying i can't go on that trip and then disputing it saying they never bought a ticket. here is what you need to know as a merchant, if you are sending expensive merchandise, you need to send it a method with tracking and tracing and have it signed for so there's no question later on if it's disputed whether you sent the goods or not. i'm clark howard. for more ways to protect yourself go to cnn.com/clarkhoward. >> clark will teach to you save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off. catch him at noon eastern on saturdays and sundays here on hln. what would you do if you found a set of lost diamond wedding rings? >> i know that person has to be looking for these two rings and

she must be pretty sick about t. >> that thought was enough to convince this woman to hunt down the owner herself.

oh, you almost caught me yawning. i know, my job is mo-to-make you not yawn, right? morning, sunshine, i'm robin meade. what is it 8:00 eastern? check right on the news stories this monday. the first hurricane of the season is taking shape were is it headed? getting a little busy in the tropics. the mayor of milwaukee is recovering after being beat within a metal pipe. what he was trying to do when that happened. okay. tropical depression claudette is now the first named storm of the season to hit the u.s. mainland. it came ashore as a tropical storm, that's why it has a name, near fort walton beach, florida overnight it is heading into

southern alabama right now. the top sustained winds are about 35 miles an hour, got some higher gusts in there there. some of the coastal area does see flooding. claudette caught some people by surprise. >> we saw the clouds in the water but thought it was just a regular, you know, evening shower, but come to find out, tropical storm on the way. >> there are two more storms out there. and one of them is a hurricane at this moment. meteor roll jesse chris smith is in for meteorologist bob van dillen and he will join us in a minute. weather of another kind, dry weather and strong winds are making dangerous for firefighters in california. 11 fires are burning in this state. you are looking at heavy smoke over the santa cruz mountains, where hundreds of people returned home yesterday after an evacuation was lifted. the fire burned ten square miles but still only about halfway contained. a huge compromise may be coming on health care reform. president obama may drop a government-run insurance option from its overhaul.

a plan to create nonprofit health insurance co-ops to compete with the private insurance is being considered. a bipartisan effort is under way to negotiate that compromise but the president said the public option won't make or break the reform. >> the public option, whether we have it or we don't have it is not the entirety of health care reform. it is just one sliver of it one aspect of it. by the way it is both the right and the left that have become so fixated on this they forget everything else. >> how would a co-op work for your health insurance? correspondent richard lui is going to dig into that today. good morning. >> good morning, robin. the federal government would not be in charge of running these co-ops but the system would require some of the taxpayer money. i will explain how that money would be broken down in ten minutes for you. >> all right. thank you very much. police arrested the man that they say attacked milwaukee's may we are a metal pipe. they found the 20-year-old

suspect in the alleand the alle yesterday. they found the man after barrett tried to break up a a fight between the suspect, a guy and the grandmother of the suspect's daughter. >> tom stepped up and did the right thing. he called 911 and tried to calm the situation to protect the grandmother and her grandchild. tom's efforts protected the women and the child. his efforts also protected members of our family as well. we are extremely proud of tom's selflessness and his courage. >> police say that the mayor broke his hand when he punched the suspect. barrett can leave the hospital tomorrow. michael vick says that he cried in prison, he felt so guilty. rafer weigle has more on vick's first interview since he was out of prison and then how the arm is looking. hi. >> good morning to you, robin. vick seems to be settling in with his new team, the eagles.

now, whether fans accept him, that is another deal all together n an interview with "60 minutes" vick says the light bulb for him went off when he was locked up. >> the first day i walked into prison and they slammed that door, i knew, you know, the magnitude of the decisions that i make. it's no way of, you know, explaining, you know, the hurt and the guilt that i felt. and that was the reason i cried so many nights. >> meanwhile, he practiced this weekend for the first time in two years and he did better than expected. his passes looked sharp. he made a good impression with the team so far, especially since he stayed late after practice sunday to work with coaches on his throwing and his scrambling and his mobility. robin? >> to okay. so the arm still looks good? thanks. chicago is shutting down. chicago is shutting down to save money. well, here is the deal it is the first of three reduced-service days, means no trash pickup no street sweeping, city offices

are closed, employees won't be paid. the local media points out that this could save the city more than $8 million over the three days. those other two days will be later on in the year and the police and the fire departments will not be affected. will not be part of those days. going to be stinking, not going to have trash pickup. busy already watching weather of a tropical nature. chris is in for bob with an update on claudette. good morning. >> good morning, robin. continuing to watch several tropical systems out there across the atlantic basin from claudette to bill, which is now our first hurricane of the season and tropical depression ana, now making its way through the caribbean. i want to start off with ana. ana is not forecast to strengthen a lot it may turn into a tropical wave it is a tropical depression right now, forecast to make its way across the very mountain countries of the dominican republic and haiti, across cuba as well. moving toward the u.s. i want to keep an eye on this in case it desides to change its

mind and gain strength, the forecast right now is mainly a rainmaker. meanwhile, bill, thankfully is a category three hurricane and right now the computer models keep this storm away from the east coast of the united states, but it may impact bermuda as we head throughout five days. but five days out there is a lot of error in this forecast, everyone along the east coast and bermuda needs to watch this storm system very carefully. across the gulf coast, claudette is making landfall this morning, heavy rainfall from just near pensacola toward panama city and apalachicola this morning. heavy rainfall and wind does gust upwards 32040 miles an hour, heavy rainfall, three he to five inches across southern parts of alabama as well as the florida panhandle. heavy rainfall the story back across the midwest, stretching up into chicago. you could see all the showers and thunderstorms from kansas city back over to st. louis, one to two inches of rainfall possible. chicago, meanwhile, dealing with big showers and thunderstorms on the day that the city decides to take the day off. let me take you to new york city, where hopefully, your air

conditioning isn't taking the day off. you are going to deal with just hazy, hot and humid conditions. look -- it just looks hot right there, high temperatures climbing up into the 90s. feels like temperature into the mid to upper 90s robin. everyone in new york take it easy, you should see slightly cooler temperatures by the middle part of the week. >> run around half-naked. >> yeah. >> what my dad would say anyway. a tank top. half naked. could you spend eternity near marlin monroe for the right price. and a widow is willing to move her late husband's body to make that happen. you are probably going to feel some of the aftershocks from colonial bank's collapse, even if your money was never there.

good morning. nine minutes past the hour. time to salute our troops. today, a deployed sailer is

getting the honor and he is going to be home soon. you know that is not soon enough for his girlfriend. go ahead, nina. >> good morning, robin. this is nina. this is a salute to my boyfriend. michael gabriel lancaster. this is his first he deployment, and everything he does with his job seems to be really, really challenging, but he manages to conquer every difficult task. i am very proud of you, michael. i can't wait to see you again. i can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you. i will see you in hawaii soon. i love you. >> nina, thank you so much. if you have somebody in the service, why don't you salute them go to cnn.com/robin. the obama administration admits that it may have to get rid of a public insurance option if it wants to get health care reform passed this year. yesterday, democratic senator kent conrad said there are not enough votes to get that passed. >> the fact of the matter is there are not the votes in the united states senate for the public option. there never have been.

so to continue to chase that rabbit, i think, is just a wasted effort. >> well, conrad is pushing for health care co-ops as an alternative. talk to richard lui. how would a cop on work for the health plan? >> you or your boss could pay into a co-op instead of a tradition aal insurance plan and the co-op would go out and negotiate coverage for its members. the government would provide some startup money, backup cash reserves for those co-ops but they would eventually be privately run. senator conrad saying the competition would force private insurers, robin, to lower their costs, too, as they go along. >> a apparently, this is not a really new concept there are co-ops on a smaller scale on different things around the country? >> absolutely right there, robin. credit unions are a form of cooperative banking, for instance, and utility co-s on they provide electrical and phone service around the country but when it comes to health

care, which we are talking about here, many existing co-ops are industry specific, a co-op for farm workers in california and arizona, for instance, that covers 15,000 people in those polices and restaurants in new york city, robin, can pay as little as $50 a month to cover their employees. folks, you can read more about how some of those co-ops work at cnn.com/robin. >> all right, thank you. >> sure. the largest bank failure this year could affect you even if you never had your money in there, no account. regulators seized colonial bank friday and sold most of the assets to bb & t. all accounts are fdic insured up to $250,000. colonial was a big player in the mortgage business and experts say that interest rate does rise for people in the market for a mortgage. it's now an hour and a half before the stock market open he is and it doesn't look good already. the dow futures are sharply lower. markets around the world also lost a lot of ground. some market experts say months

after waiting for a turnaround, investors want to hear good economic news instead of, oh, this is just less bad economic news they want the bona fide good. a woman who was stranded in kenya for three months is finally home. >> i'm really, really happy to come home. i'm really, really happy to come back. i'm glad my nate mare is over. >> we will hear what she had to do to prove who she is.

right now we have your weather systems on the radar. tropical depression claudette came on shore near fort walton beach for the tropical storm. the depression this weekend is headed toward southern alabama. bill is the atlantic season's first hurricane it it is still way out there in the ocean, see that map. and ana has been downgraded to a tropical depression for the moment. it is east of st. croix. all these storms we are watching. someone has reportedly confessed to setting a fire that killed 43 women and children. the flames consumed the tent in three minutes in kuwait over the weekend. the official says the suspected

a noticed setting the fire for personal reasons. didn't elaborate on that. 52 people are still in the hospital. a woman got stranded in kenya for three months because officials said that she didn't look anything like her passport photo. she was visiting from canada. she said she showed several i.d.s, including her driver's license and a dry cleaning receipt even. officials finally agreed to a dna test to prove she is who she is. >> i'm really happy to come home. i'm really, really happy to come back. i'm glad my nightmare is over. >> she is canadian. she is canadian and felt canadian from day one with. she feels canadian now. >> she says it is an ordeal that she would really like to forget. fans of marilyn monroe now have a chance to be buried near her. a widow is selling the crypt located right above monroe's in westwood, california. it is now occupied by her late husband but she is doing to pay

off her mortgage. the bidding on ebay is now more than $4.5 million. a virtual unknown beat tiger woods and the first asian-born player to win a major championship. here is rafer, with the expression on the guy's face. he looks just surprised. >> think about it robin this guy didn't even take up golf until he was 19 years old. tiger woods took up golf when he was 2 years old. i mean, you want to be a pro now, start when you are this high, but yang of south korea was looking for a way to exercise when he took up the sport after he hurt his knee. here he is, 37, beating tiger woods. he went out in front of him on this shot on 14, this eagle tax that took the lead away from tiger, who led for practically the entire tournament. on 18, the guy closed the door on woods, just showing absolute nerves of steel to become, as robin said, the first asian-born player to ever win a major. look at that face. through an interpreter, he talked about how he was able to

stay so calm. >> i wasn't that they are vows, honestly, because it is the game of golf. it is not like you're in an octagon where you're fighting against tiger and he is going to bite you or swing at you with his 9-iron. >> talk about putting in perspective. speaking of octagon, the first mma fight ever televised featuring women as the main event, bottom line this is a "sport" that is getting so much popularity, chris "sigh borg" santos handed gina carano her first defeat. that is brutal there women's fighting just as popular as men's fighting in that particular sport. a scary moment on the diamond. pitch per hiroki carried da says he is lucky to be alive after this, a line drive right to the head. went to the hospital. he is now out of the hospital. he is -- >> poor thing. >> look at the guy. no helmet on either. that's just exposed. he says he's got some concussion-like symptoms but get

more tests done today. he is not the only one who suffered a scary blow to the head this weekend. more on that later. >> not like there is much a pitcher can do except keep your eye out, right? >> totally exposed at that moment. all you can do robin. end on a positive note, shall we? new york yankees taking a step to end hunger, a few stadiums r all of their unused food is going to a group making that food available to local soup kitchens and charities, rock and wrap it up was started by musicians when they first started taking food from rock concerts. now they are getting from yankee stadiums along with 31 other sports teams 150 million pounds of food available. >> that is a great idea, because it is food going to -- sitting there, prepared no one bought it? >> right. >> what are you going to do with it? >> exactly. >> i love it. i hope it catches on. >>. if you sell stuff online, we have a warning for you. hln money expert clark howard says you should know about a very unfriendly act called friendly fraud and how to

protect yourself. >> i have a special warning for you if you are an e-business person who has an e-commerce site. there is a new hot ripoff going on that is being referred to as friendly fraud. i don't see anything friendly about it. i don't even know how they came one that expression. this is how it works. you sell something to someone on your e-commerce site, you send it to them and then they dispute the charge with their credit card company, saying they didn't receive the merchandise, even though they did. this is also happening, according to the "wall street journal," to expedia, that people are buying airline tickets and later saying i can't go on that trip and then disputing it, saying they never bought a ticket. here is what you need to know as a merchant. if you are sending expensive merchandise, you need to send it a method with tracking and tracing and have it signed for so there's no question later on if it's disputed whether you

sent the goods or not. i'm clark howard. for more ways to protect yourself, go to cnn.com/clarkhoward. >> clark will teach you to save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off. catch him at noon eastern on saturdays and sundays here on hln. a bakery in michigan said it set a new world record for the biggest cupcake t is part of the annual woodward dream cruise in detroit over the weekend with. this thing is 1200 pounds. earlier they tried to make an even bigger one but it expanded so much, it dislodged a heating rod in a huge oven. so, a little too much baking powder, i'm thinking. starting today, doctors at va hospitals will start offering routine hiv tests to vets who get medical care. under this new poll circumstance the vets would have to only verbally consent to the test instead of signing a consent form. the va hopes the new way will encourage more people to get tested. a woman was almost heartbroken when she realized somebody -- someone had lost a diamond wedding ring, an

engagement ring. >> i know that person has to be looking for it these two rings and she must be pretty sick about it. >> well, that thought was enough to to convince this woman to hunt down the owner herself. dd

the florida panhandle is getting soaked by the first main storm to hit the u.s. mainland this season. claudette has been downgraded to a depression now but could flood areas if it heads into southern alabama. meanwhile, hurricane bill is in the south atlantic moving toward, let's see, slowly toward the caribbean. anna is downgraded to a tropical depression. a man is in custody for allegedly beat egg the may of milwaukee with a metal pipe. police say that mayor tom barrett was at the wisconsin state fair on saturday night when he tried break up a domestic dispute. barrett is in stable condition now. he can leave the hospital tomorrow. peter jackson's "district 9"

was number one at the box office over the weekend it brought in $37 million. "g.i. joe, the rise of the cobra" slipped to number two with 22.5 million. "the time traveler's wife" came in third, earning 19 million. those are a few of our day's top stories. hey, good morning, as the alarm clock goes off, don't hit that snooze button, you know you will be mad at yourself, you will be late. i'm robin meade, welcome. president obama spent the weekend out west trying to convince people that the health care overhaul has their best interest at heart. he used a town hall meeting in colorado to dispel myths about his provisions in his proposal. he talked about his late grandmother when he dismissed claims that one house bill would include so-called death panels for senior citizens. >> i just lost my grandmother last year. i know what it's a like to watch somebody you love, who's aging,

deteriorate and have to struggle with that. so the notion that somehow i ran for public office or members of congress are in this so that they can go around pulling the plug on grandma? i mean, when you start making arguments like that, that's simply dishonest. >> the president also softened his stance on a public health insurance option. at a leaves the door open for a senate proposal to create health insurance co-ops. now, it is the only proposal so far to get any bipartisan support. correspondent richard lui joins us now. let's talk about the pros and the cons of a co-op system? >> robin, the big pro here is simply the cost. some employers saying the prices are 10 to 15% larger over -- lowered over larger providers, a couple reasons why. co-ops are nonprofit. one expert actually saying

that -- to the "l.a. times," often exempt from certain taxes, have certain bargaining fuhr, doctors and other provider, robin, because they represent so many people. >> the co-op idea still has opponents, some people saying, not going to work for me. what is the downside? >> critics saying that health insurance costs will not work on a large scale. they have typically operated in local market he is. there is also a higher insolvency risk. some have gone bankrupt in the past, leaving doctors and employers on the hook for unpaid claims so the cement senate proposal would like the government to pay in such case and co-ops are less regulated than insurance providers. again, robin, we can expect new rules in the senate vertion to deal with that. >> richard, thank you. this conversation, as you know, continues, we are a long way from if not being part of our conversation. you want answers about the health care reform proposal? go to cnn.com/robin. new york's schools are trying to avoid a new swine flu outbreak this year, especially at st. francis prep which was

hit hard last spring. the health department hopes to have a public school plan by the first day of school on september 9th. one idea is requiring students to wash their hands several times a day but that has not been approved. a group of vets got the welcome that they missed when they returned home from vietnam. this special ceremony was held at fort campbell, kentucky. many of the vets say that when they originally returned from vietnam, they were often met with angry demonstrators. a spokesperson from fort campbell says he hopes that there are more ceremonies like this at other bases. had to be heart-warming to be there. tourists and sightseers are still clamoring to see manhattan skylines from high above, even though there was a deadly crash between a plane and a chopper over new york's hudson river last weekend. it is so busy in the air, here is your firsthand look at how busy. >> just like driving, i stay to the north, northbound i stay to

the right, southbound. >> he's on the right side? >> i got you down low. >> down low. >> a i'm got him. >> he wouldn't have seen him until it was too late. >> it is amazing when you think about that. the deadly crash between a 2004ist helicopter and a small plane killed nine people. the faa has formed a group to recommend air traffic changes in the area. they have two weeks to come up with suggestions. a possible tornado ripped up trees and tossed around cars in south florida yesterday. according to local reports, 23 homes in cape coral were damaged. there were also three fires from lightning. >> the power's out we couldn't close the garage door, stuff was flying in the garage and sucking out of the garage and just crazy. >> everything swirled and flapped around and flaw around, things from over there are over here. these are not my stuff. >> cape coral officials say that

the cost to repair the 11 mostly damaged homes will be $100,000. so, let's find out where we have the rough weather today because of tropical depression claudette. hi, chris. chris is in for bob, by the way. >> watching claudette make landfall across the florida panhandle, now moving to the south of the montgomery area, 85 miles to the southwest of montgomery. see cape coral to the south. that tornado was a result of claudette as she was getting organized yesterday. now moving inland, continuing to weak ton a tropical depression, producing very heavy rainfall across the florida panhandle, to the east of pensacola, stretching back be toward panama city. see in some of the bands, possible tornado spinnup, the bands come ashore. let me go ahead and take you to atlanta, georgia, we are hooking at a cloudy skies, a good bit of fog this morning, as you are going to have to deal with the possibility of seeing some showers and thunderstorms loosely associated with claudette, as she continues to

move in inland. see a 40% chance of storms today, nice the 80s. keep that chance of rainfall in the forecast much of the week, high temperatures closer to 90 degrees. across the midwest, big showers and thunderstorms located there as well from chicago back over to denver. we will see the possibility of large hail and damaging winds with these thunderstorms. they are ongoing right now. take a look at these thunderstorms as they continue to make their way into the kansas city area. these storms capable of producing another one to two inches of rainfall. now, augusta ta, illinois, which is not too far away, in illinois but not too far away from iowa or missouri, they have already seen three inches of rainfall the past 24 hours so another one to two inches of rainfall going to be possible with those showers. meanwhile, back into chicago, seen one round of showers and thunderstorms move through that is going to move over toward detroit into fort wayne. i will see heavy rainfall, a good bit of lightning from these storms, see heavy rainfall throughout the day stretching from chicago back over across the interstate there, make your way across lake michigan a very wet day across chicagoland.

across california, we have the wildfires burning. this wildfire about 7,000 acres right now, but good news, see light onshore winds across california, going to increase humidity values and enable firefighters to get the upper hand on these now. fires 50% contained, but the larger fire down to the south, 30,000 acres already burned. we are going to see a similar situation down there there. this fire 60% contained, you were saying earlier, robin, nine other wild fires across california continuing to rain. no rain in the forecast. >> thank you. a world famous movie star says he was detained at a u.s. airport. the bollywood star says he was detained for hours because of his last name and gets even stranger when you hear what his latest movie is about. free meals for your kids is good news in a bad economy. where you can get in on those deals.

okay doeky. i will look at the newspapers while you drink your coffee. the military is adapting to a coed force in wars were there are no front lines. simple things like more coed facilities and privacy for troops on front line bases are on the general's mind. take a look at how the secret service and other to federaling as train, including hiring actors to plate bad guys. trainers say the actors give the agents some real world experience in facing threats. the "l.a. times" reports that one of the massive wildfires in santa barbara may have been started by an illegal marijuana growing operation. investigators say it is the

first time that drug traffickers started a major fire. that is a look at some of the papers. a world famous movie star says he was detained at an airport over his last name. bollywood star says he was questioned for two hours because his last name is khan and raised a red flag on their commuter. >> i have a simple lodge he logic, once you have been -- you have done your finger prints and i'm sure assuming those are the same ones that we just sent to the immigration here. why is it that one needs to figure out other things besides that? >> he was in the u.s. promoting a film about racial profiling. people were upset, very upset in india. the indian government says it is taking the incident up with the u.s. embassy there. a u.s. customs official tells the associated press that the questioning was part of a routine process. all right.

talking about your money, 42 minutes past the hour. u.s. stocks may fall sharply today. world markets are showing troubling signs. china's stock market plunged almost 6% to the lowest level in two months. investors may be jittery after friday's reports showing weak consumer confidence. dow features were down almost 160 points at last check. okay. we need good news in a bad economy about now. your kids can eat for free am some restaurants. "usa today" points out that the international house of pancakes will offer free kid cans' meals every fight for a month. also, the italian chain, fazoli's has a kids eat free tuesdays and weekends for the end of the month and kids eat free at ikea on labor day weekend, even if the parents buy nothing. now you know. okay. we've got three big storms on the radar at a we are watching, one heading across the southeast right now. another one moving through the caribbean and one big enough to be called the atlantic season's

first hurricane. michael vick is back on the practice field. we are going to see how the arm looks.

claudette has weakened into a tropical depression. it came ashore as a tropical storm near fort walton beach, florida, overnight. the first named storm to hit the u.s. mainland this season is moving into southern alabama now, but bill is the atlantic season's first hurricane and it is way out there in the ocean, but it is a biggie. and anna has been downgraded to a tropical depression southeast of st. croix, so, three systems that we are watching at this moment. iraq's government is being you recalled to crackdown on attacks and killings on gay men there the group called human rights watch reports hundreds of men have been tore dmurd iraq be in recent months. it is especially bad in the sadr city neighborhood of baghdad. earlier this year, several men's bodies were found there with derogatory terms written on their chests.

motor city got wrapped up for a trip down memory lane. thousands of people cruised through detroit in their classic wheels over the weekend with. you are talking mint-condition cars and hot rods. organizers of the annual woodward dream cruise say more than 1 million people came to see them on saturday it celebrates the heyday of detroit's big three. a truck bomb exploded in pakistan this morning killing seven people. gunmen assassinated an ethnic leader and there were riots in three cities but despite the violence, u.s. envoy richard who will brooke told our sister network cnn that pakistan is making real progress in the fate against terrorism, especially with the recent killing of a top taliban leader. >> i don't think that there is any question that the operations have been a success and combined with the removal of mehsud, the worst of the worst of the pakistani taliban from the scene, i think we have seen a

great improvement from the security situation. at the same time, we don't know whether or not this is a destrug of the taliban in swat or just the disbursal. it will take a while to find that out. >> u.s. officials also say that relations with pakistan have significantly improved over the last six months. tiger woods did the unthinkable and he lost a major tournament after he was ahead for most of it. hi, rafer. >> hi, robin this is literally something we have never seen before and some guys, i'm not being funny, are trying not to freak out about it because tiger woods doesn't do this robin. >> yeah. >> he has never lost a major tournament when he went into the final round out if front. well, on the last day of the last major of the year, the pga championship, talk about an untiger-like performance, we have seen the shots just not falling for the guy. you can just see the frustration on him, shot after shot, his last chance to win a major this year, so the first time in five

years he didn't win a major. the guy who won, a great cinderella story, more on that in the next half hour. michael vick was back on the practice field for the first time in two years. he ran the eagles scouting offense, where they have you try to simulate your next opponent and he looked pretty good. his passes looked sharp. had not lost, if any, armstrongette, although a while before he is in football shape he also said he cried in prison. more on that in ten minutes. and also why this could have a positive effect, we are blogging about it. cnn.com/robin. get ready to see history being made, don't blink. it is going to be over that fast. usain bolt and tyson gay at the world championships in ber run. is suppose tonight close, folks, the 100 meters, hussein ran away like a bolt, shattering his own world record, 9.58 seconds, beating himself by a tenth of a second. he is the fastest man in the world and going to be 23 in a

few days. david wright took a 94-mile-an-hour fast bull to the head on saturday, beaned by san francisco's matt cane. the poor guy was hospitalized but released on sunday and said he still has made aches and9 94--mile-an-hour ball to the head. the team manager said he could be out the rest of the year. >> jimmie johnson was two laps away from winning the race on sunday and he ran out of gas. he gambled the fuel thing and he ran out, paving the way for brian vickers to win the second time only in his career. >> thank you. an american man sentenced to seven years hard labor in myanmar has been freed. john yettaw was taken to a hospital after arriving in thailand yesterday. his family says he's diabetic and that three months in prison really took a toll. senator jim webb of virginia negotiated yettaw's release.

he is the first american official to meet with a regime leader. he spoke with our sister network, cnn, this morning. >> i have not seen him since he got off the plane. he has a delicate medical condition. i didn't go there specifically to obtain his release. this was part of a series of issues that we raised with the people in the government there, and i really regret what mr. yettaw did. i think that he may have been well intentioned, but he hurt a lot of people, including the very woman he was thinking he was going to help. >> well, yettaw was arrested in may for visiting the home of leader suu kui. he said god sent him there to protect her. she said she never invited ye yettaw to visit her.

>> the planes are part of an elite russian knights group. they were practicing acrobatic maneuvers for an air show. one pilot was killed. one woman on the ground was seriously injured and four others may have been hurt. a group of doctors say a lot -- we have more news coming up. )d)d)d)d)d)d)d)d)d)d)d)d)d)dr

okay, with that your weekend has ended. here comes monday. morning, sunshine. i'm robin meade. appreciate you. here's what's going on today in the headlines. the first hurricane of the atlantic season is taking shape, but it's not the only big storm we're watching right now. one of them has already hit land in the united states. plus, police say the mayor of milwaukee is recovering from being beaten with a metal pipe. what he was trying to do when it happened. and firefighters are up against a tough day. 11 fires are burning in parts of california. what is making the fight especially dangerous? first, though, the first named storm of the season has hit the u.s. mainland. tropical depression claudette,

came down from a tropical storm, came a shore as a tropical storm overnight near fort walton beach, florida. it is headed into alabama right now. the sustained winds at about 35 miles an hour. the coastal areas could see some flooding. claudette caught some people by surprise. >> we saw the clouds on the water, but we thought it was just a regular, you know, evening shower, but come to find out, a tropical storm on the way. >> there are more storms out there as well. meteorologist chris smith is in for meteorologist bob van dillen today. good morning. >> good morning. we continue to track two systems in the atlantic and the caribbean. one is strong, the other not so much. hurricane bill is the first hurricane of the 2009 atlantic season. tropical depression ana is racing off the screen towards puerto rico and the dominican republic. ana will remain a tropical depression, maybe even weaken to

a tropical wave. possibly moving to the southeastern united states. that's why it bears watching very carefully. not forecasted to strengthen but this can change over the next five days. bill right now is a very powerful storm. a category 3 storm racing to the north and east, getting very close to bermuda. we'll have to watch the east coast as well, but right now looks like it's going to stay just off the east coast. robin? >> thank you. police arrested the man they say attacked milwaukee's mayor with a metal pipe. they found the 20-year-old suspect and the alleged weapon yesterday. police say they hit mayor tom barrett at a street fair saturday night. that's after barrett tried to break up an argument between the suspect and the suspect's daughter. >> he's in stable condition. i've talked to him personally. he's still got his good sense of humor, and he is -- he's a great

brother and he's in good shape. he'll be fine. he did sustain some pretty significant injuries. >> well, police say the mayor broke his hand when he punched the suspect. barrett could leave the hospital tomorrow. a huge compromise may be coming on health care reform. president obama may drop a vernment-run insurance option from his overhaul. a plan to create non-profit health insurance co-ops to compete with private insurance is being considered. the three republicans and three democrats on the committee are negotiating that compromise. it is the only bipartisan effort so far. how would a co-op work when it comes to your health care? correspondent richard lui is going to break that down in less than ten minutes. >> michael vick said he cried in prison because he felt so guilt i. rafer has the first interviews with hicm out of prison. >> he seems to be settling in with his new team with the

eagles whether he's embraced by fans or not. vick was very humble when interviewed by 6 0 minutes and said he was a changed man once he was locked up. >> the first day i walked into prison and they slammed that door, i knew, you know, the magnitude of the decisions that i made. there is no way of explaining, you know, the hurt and the guilt that i felt, and that was the reason i cried so many nights. >> meanwhile this weekend, vick practiced for the first time in two years, and he did better than many expected. his passes looked pretty sharp and he gave the team reason to be optimistic from a football standpoint, especially since he stayed late after practice sunday to work with the coaches. as i said, robin, vick will play football at some point this year. it will be interesting to see how the fans embrace him or not. >> yeah, and what if he does better than their first string quarterback? >> which could happen later on in the season. >> he supported him. >> exactly.

donovan mcnabb embraced having him come to the team. keep an eye on your 401(k) because the market is sharply lower and it doesn't look like it's going to be good for wall street, to tell you the truth. the market says after waliting months for a turnaround, they want bona fide good news rather than less bad news. bad weather and storong wins are a bad combo for firefighters across california. you're looking at the santa cruz mountains. that's when hundreds returned home yesterday after the evacuation was lifted. the fire spread across ten miles but is only halfway contained. we've already talked about the tropics. concern number two would be rough weather in chicago. in a city of 9 million, it's not going to be a good commute, but what about our flyers? >> we're going to see big problems in the south stretching to the midwest today with severe

weather ongoing right now. we have strong showers and thunderstorms across the gulf of mexico. this is complements of tropical depression claudette which is about 85 miles to the southwest of the montgomery area, continuing to move into alabama and mississippi. not a good thing in chicago when you have a big city and showers and thunderstorms. w we've already seen a good bit of rainfall in chicago. you're about to get walloped once again with heavy showers and thunderstorms. we've already seen several inches of rainfall. we could get another one to two to almost three inches more. you can see one heavy round of rainfall moving into northern parts of indiana, but over toward chicago you're getting a little bit of a break. you'll see more heavy rainfall as we go throughout the day. we've seen delays at o'hare of over an hour. that's going to get worse throughout the day.

kansas city, you notice this line right here. strong showers and thunderstorms there. we could see wind gusts over 70 miles an hour associated with these thunderstorms as they race away over toward missouri, so we'll have to continue to watch this. the heaviest of the rainfall, though, is if you go through the next 24 hours, the reds up there indicates almost two to four more inches of rainfall there, robin. now the chance to be buried near marilyn monroe. a widow is selling the crypt located right above monroe's in western california. it's now occupied by her late husband, but she's doing it to help pay her mortgage. get this. the bidding is now at more than $4.5 million. it takes big shoulders to shrug off trash pickup in the city. why they're telling city

workers, stay in bed this morning!

. the obama administration admits it may have to get rid of a public option to get the health care reform passed this year. >> the fact of the matter is there are not the votes in the united states senate for the public option. there never have been, so to continue to chase that rabbit, i think, is just a wasted effort. >> well, conrad is pushing for health care co-ops as an alternative. correspondent richard lui, let's talk to him right now. how would a co-op work for a health plan? >> basically you and your boss could decide to pay into a co-op instead of a tradition insurance plan, then the co-op would go out and negotiate coverage for its members. the government would back up cash reserves for those co-ops, but they would essentially be private run. senator conrad says the competition would force private

insurers to lower their costs, too, as they go along. >> apparently this is not a really new concept. there are co-ops working on a smaller scale on different things around the country. >> absolutely right there, robin. utility co-ops, they provide electrical phone service around the country. many existing co-ops are industry-specific. a farmers co-op in california, credit unions and restaurant workers in new york city can pay as little as $50 a month to cover their employees. you can reed moad more about ho those co-ops work at cnn.com/robin. chris here. we're looking at air travel delays. we have some big problem where are looking at some low cloudiness right now. that's slowing down flights by about half an hour. hart field jacksonville

international airport. that could cause additional problems, getting rid of the low clouds. continue seeing delays along the gulf coast from new orleans to pensacola thanks to tropical storm claudette. those showers will spread eventually to birmingham, so you'll see delays there possibly as well. big thunderstorms in kansas city, st. louis, denver, stretching all the way to indianapolis and detroit. and chicago, you've seen heavy rainfall and showers and thunderstorms already today. those will continue throughout the day. you're seeing hour-plus delays right now. robin, it would not surprise me to see two-hour delays by later on today in chicago. >> if they're having those delays, you know it's going to shake out allover the system. >> not going to be pretty. follow me. it's the first of three reduced service days, so things like no trash pickup, no street sweeping. the city offices are closed in chicago. employees won't be paid for these days. local media reports, though, this could save the city over $8

million over the three days. those other two days are later on in the year. police and fire departments will not be affected. we alsz pause and salute our troops, and for good reason. today a deployed sailor is getting the honors. he's going home soon, but it's not soon enough for his girlfriend. here is nina. >> good morning, robin, this is nina, and this is a salute to my boyfriend, ensign michael gabriel castor. his job is very challenging, but he manages to tackle every difficult task. i'm very proud of you, michael. i can't wait to see you again and i can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you. i'll see you in hawaii soon. i love you! >> isn't that sweet? if you have someone in the service, why don't you salute them? california, you've been

spared a travel nightmare this morning. a strike with the train line has been avoided. a strike would have stranded more than 300,000 rail system riders. the largest bank failure this year could affect you even if you never had any money in that bank. regulators seized colonial bank on friday and sold most of its assets to bbc. all of its accounts are fdi insured up to $250,000. experts say the interest rates could rise for people in the market for a mortgage in other banks. colonial had almost 350 branches across florida, alabama, georgia, nevada and texas. it is the sixth largest bank failure in u.s. history. the fdic says colonial's closing will cost it almost $3 billion. meanwhile, regulators shut down for other banks on friday.

they include two arizona banks, a vegas bank and a pittsburgh bank. so far 77 federally insured banks have failed this year. a woman accused of raping and killing her eight-year-old neighbor goes to court today. i know you know this story. why prosecutors are being so tight-lipped about this case.

what we've got are three different severe weather systems we're watching. here's a video from tropical depression claudette. it came a shore near fort walton beach, florida overnight as a tropical storm. it is weakening and moving over southern alabama. bill is the atlantic season's first hurricane. it's way out there. now you can see on the satellite here. and ana has been downgraded to a tropical depression. can you see that one? it is southeast of soit. croix. a sunday school teacher accused of raping and killing a little girl is due in court this afternoon. melissa huckabee's court daylight was moved up a few weeks. speculation that an indictment could be moving. she is charged with the death of her eight-year-old neighbor

sandra cantu. prosecutors are not commenting now because of a gag order. two planes collided in mid-air. they were rehearsing acrobatic maneuvers for an air show near moscow. one of the pilots was killed. according to russian media, one woman on the ground was seriously injured and four others may have been hurt. we got the new "dancing with the stars" line-up. it's just been announced. some of the stars because it's a list this big. donny osmond, because imaria wa on there a while ago, so i'm not surprised. melissa joan hart and osbourne, you know, ozzy's daughter.

i love the variety, don't you? >> where is rod blagojevich? >> i'm sure he would have loved to. >> wouldn't it there, too? >> yeah, he would have leaped at that. interesting. well, a virtual unknown has beaten tiger woods and he's the first asian-born player to win a major championship. rafer, good morning. i was reading on the wires that this guy even got a call from his country's president. it's a big deal. >> they're going crazy in south korea right now. this guy absolutely was not supposed to win this tournament. tom delay has a better chance of winning "dancing with the stars" than this guy who didn't take up golf until he was 19 years old. tiger started at age 2. we're talking about y.e. yang of south korea. tiger had been leading practically the entire tournament. he went ahead of tiger on that

amazing shot at hole 13. my jaw hit the floor when i saw it, i couldn't believe this guy me thodically managed to take tiger over. look at that celebration. then he talked about why he was able to stay so calm. >> i wasn't that nervous, honestly, because it's a game of golf. it's not like you're in an octagon where you're fighting against tiger and he's going to bite you or swing at you with his 9-iron. >> that's a way of putting it in perspective. let's just say this video will get your attention. this was televised as a main event, and it is not for the faint of heart. they are just brutal. santos walloping gina murano. a scary moment on the weekend.

dodgers pitcher kuroda says he's lucky to be alive after getting drilled in the head by a 94-mile-an-hour ball. he suffered a concussion. he's getting more tests today. let's end on a positive note, shall we? the new york yankees are doing a great thing to try and end hunger. all their unused food is going to a group that takes it to local soup kitchens. the charity rock and wrap it up is sending food to charity. 150 pounds of food is being handed to people who need it. >> there are plenty of hungry people in this country, there is no reason to throw it away. the guest of honor in a wedding in italy turned out to

be dogs. they showed their love for dogs. all dogs were welcome. sight-seeing tours have not stopped flying over the hudson river in new york. you're going to see how busy that corridor is for yourself. d

it may not be the best day to check your 401(k). it looks like the stock market may plunge today and your anxiety about spending could be rattling the investors. a live report from new york is less than five minutes away. the florida panhandle is getting soaked today by the first named stomrm to hit the mainland this hurricane season. tropical storm ana has been downgraded for now. hurricane bill is way out there, slow-moving to the caribbean. ana is downgraded to a tropical depression. a man is in custody for

allegedly beating the mayor of kentucky to with a metal pipe. mayor tom barrett was at the street fair saturday night when he tried to break up an argument. "district 9" is number 1 at the box office this weekend. g.i. joe came in number two, and "the time traveler's wife" was number three, getting about 12 million. hello. it's 9:31 eastern. how you been? sto president obama was at a town hall meeting in colorado to talk about the health reform bill. he talked about his grandmother when he dismissed claims that

one part would include a death claim. >> i know what it's like to lose somebody you love who is aging deteriorate and have to struggle with that. so the notion that somehow i ran for public office or members of congress are in this so they can go around pulling the plug on grandma? i mean, when you start making arguments like that, that's simply dishonest. >> well, obama also said that productive discussions about health care are taking place across the country, not just the heated town hall meetings you're seeing on tv. you know, magazine ads may be sending the wrong message to new parents? a study published in the journal of pediatrics says more than one-third of the pictures studied had babies sleeping in

unsafe positions that includes on their stomachs and on their sides. experts say babies should sleep on their backs to reduce the risk of sids, sudden in fanfant death syndrome. the study looked at almost 400 pictures from 30 magazines. i think what to tell you is back to sleep. so with babies it's back to sleep. auntie robin, babysitter. we have severe storms not only in the tropics that we've already showed you, but in the nation's mid section, i don't think there will be a great morning rush. hi, chris. >> no, it's not, robin. we're talking about air problems in not only chicago, but detroit, indianapolis, denver. you can see much of this area highlighted in a risk for severe weather, ongoing severe weather at this hour. you can see a line of severe storms making its way into kansas city. you can see wind gusts close to 70 miles an hour as they roll

through parts of kansas moving into missouri toward the kansas city area. watch out for that. we've already seen heavy rainfall across the northern part of missouri, several inches. you're going to get another one to two inches of rainfall across northern missouri, back into augusta, illinois. parts of iowa also getting in on the heavy rainfall. chicago, you've had rainfall already roll through once. we have another batch of rainfall. and kansas city, missouri, that's rolling through, too. for now the heaviest rainfall moves across northern parts of indiana back into the southern parts of michigan. that will move over to detroit eventually. let's go ahead and take you out to san francisco, california where we are looking at this morning. kind of a foggy start to the day. we're going to see temperatures gradually rise up today. going into the 60s, but for the time being, we're dealing with morning fog and that will slow things down at the airport about a half hour. things improving as we go throughout the day, though.

looking at -- yeah, not a good monday. you look fabulous, susan. market numbers, no, i cannot say the same for that. >> the market numbers do not look fabulous. rob robin, let's put this in perspective. the market has been rising for five months. the s&p 500 which so many of our retirement savings are tied to, up 50% since the lows in march. there is an expression here that things are overdone, and when -- you know, when things are low, it can be ugly. that's what we're seeing in the first five minutes of trading. we should also say there's been a sharp rise, major averages in europe are all down at least 2% in skepticism about the strength of the economic recovery. no signs of recovery at lowe's, the nation's second largest

retailer says its current earnings fell nearly 20%. it's sales also fell, missing expectations. consumer spending a big problem there. and lowe's' shares are really low. they're down 10%. so many of us are struggling to pay the bills we already have. capitol one financial says loans that are at least 30 days late rose in july following 30 months of improvement. the university of regis says they found increase in cocaine from the dollar bills in washington, d.c. bills they studied as well in baltimore and detroit also had high cocaine levels on their dollars. >> you mean any dollar that we touch? >> yeah, that they studied -- almost all of them. 95% of them in washington, d.c.

had some sort of trace of cocaine, a trace of cocaine. >> that's freaky. >> remember, a lot of people use dollar bills. they roll them up, and if you put that dollar bill back with the rest of your stash, it can taint them, but the point is that that's an awful lot. it is very disturbing. >> yeah. >> and some of the researchers say it could be this economic crisis that is affecting this increased rate. >> strange evidence. all right. thank you. appreciate it. good to see you. >> thank you, robin. likewise. you can't see her, but sheesz joining us here on the morning express. i know she gets up early, anyway. what does she think, first of all, about the news of the day? michael vick said in an interview that he cried in prison. but we're also going to talk to her about her new book, "the 11th victim." after this.

. we're watching three different storms in the tropics today. you know it's getting later in the season so it's really warming up way out there. nothing for us to be concerned about right now, it's hurricane bill. look at that thing. it's kind of organizing right now. it's not a concern to us. if you look toward your left, you've got a tropical depression -- let me think about that -- ana, so that one is kind of losing steam. then what just came more into shore was claudette, and that's going to be a bit of a rain

maker for florida ask parnd par alabama today. so hurricane bill is way out there, okay? we will talk a little more about those weather concerns and what's going on in your backyard, too. well, this is a story of a district attorney whose fiancee is murdered, and it's a very similar story to hln host's nancy grace's story as well. what am i talking about? it's the story line for her new book, the eleventh victim. she joins us this morning to talk about her book and some other stories making headlines this morning. this is good! it's non-fiction, though, so we'll talk about the book later. i said, i can't believe what goes on in your head, but you made this up. >> i did. >> everyone is always interested in -- first of all, welcome. >> thanks for having me. >> -- what nancy grace thinks about things in the news right now. just this morning we had a story about michael vick back in the nfl. he had a big interview over the weekend where he said he cried

when he was in prison. i think i already know, but i'm going to ask her what she thinks about his apologies, is he sincere, should he be playing like he's going to? >> as far as vick sitting alone behind prison bars crying, he needs to cry. because what he did to hundreds, literally hundreds, of defenseless animals, and robin, first of all, thank you for having me. i'm a very faithful and loyal viewer, as are the twins. sometimes we have it on mute because they get riled up when they see hurricanes and things, so normally we have it on watch. a lot of people are wondering, is he sincere? probably not. i found his statement to be -- if i was a lawyer for vic, that would be my statement, i cried behind bars, i feel bad. is he sincere? i doubt it because he's lived

his whole life another way, then he comes out with a statement. i don't think if he's sincere. i just don't want him to break the law anymore. if he was not a celebrity, he would not have done part of his sentence at home in his luxury mansion, he still would have been behind bars. all i can say, philly eagles? i'm not going to see them play. they've got mcnabb, who is like the all-american poster boy who makes ads for campbell's soup. then on the other end of the bench, they've got the convicted felon dog torturer. >> interesting, too, because mcnabb was very supportive of getting him on the team. >> because mcnabb is a great guy. >> so that's a little bit about what she thinks about that. >> but the reality is, robin meade, is that he's done his sentence, he's done his time. i never thought it was enough. i thought his sentence was light when it was handed down by the judge. but that's what they agreed on and now he's out.

he can play football, he can do whatever he wants to. i don't have a beef with that. i just hope that he can manage not to break the law this time on such a huge scale as he did before. >> so that's real life. then we have "the eleventh vict victim" which is a fiction -- i'm going to call it maybe a murder mystery/thriller that nancy wrote. nancy has written books before, but "objection" was non-fiction. so this is a fiction book. where did this come from? >> really, robin, it's been a dream come true, because as a girl growing up, i grew up in a very rural area, i remember a lot of times we could only in the summer get books from the bookmobile that would travel to rural or needy areas, and i always read. my sister was about 3.5, 4 years older than me, my brother eight

years, and i would read their books because they had them from school. i thought i wanted to be a writer. i went on to be an english professor and i studied shakespeare and literature, then after my fiance was murdered, i just didn't think i could be in the classroom and i left that study and went to law school to become a prosecutor. so all these years later, i finally wrote a book of fiction. >> it came back full circle. >> we're going to talk about keith, and we're also going to talk about the main character in this book. she's petite, she's blond, she was a prosecutor in atlanta, then she moved to manhattan. sound like anybody you know? stay close.

nancy grace is always up early because she is the mother of twins so you know she's up early. we got her into the studio early because she's got a new book out called "the eleventh victim" and it is fiction. it's a novel she thought up in her own head here. it's a murder mystery, is what i'm trying to say.

the main character in this book, there is something very familiar about her. first of all, she was a prosecutor in atlanta. she moves to new york after her fiance was murdered. >> right. >> i wonder, is hailey bean another version of nancy grace? >> robin, it's crazy, i started writing this when i first came out of the courtroom with johnny cochran called cochran and grace back in 1987 called court tv. i never one day thought this would be published. i missed the courtroom so much, and a lot of this was about courtroom drama, their defendants, their crimes, judges. there are several stories interwoven. hailey dean, the heroine in this bo

book, had a husband who was murdered. i never thought i'd get to have a daughter after keith was murdered, and i named her hailey, so i named this character hailey. then i finish the book and i actually get a little girl and a little boy. hailey is a little about me. both prosecutors, both fiances were murdered and moved to manhattan. she's so much smarter than me, she thinks her way out of problems, she s's never rash, she's always calm, cool and collected. except once she gets pretty angry, she punches a cop in the mouth. that happens. wanted to, but usually the person is on the other side of the satellite so i can't quite get my fingers around their neck. but then all her friends, robin, start dropping like flies dead

in the same m.o. as her last prosecution. it's a very unique m.o. then the cops frame her. well, they don't frame her, they believe she did it. >> it's a very detailed book. and i guess they tell you to write about what you know. so maybe that's why we think that hailey dean reminds us of you. is it difficult to write a book like this, in that your main character experienced a lot of the life traumas that you did. >> it was. it was very difficult when i wrote about what she went through and the suffering and just the time was a big blur for me during that time, before and after his murder. and then at the very end, when she's trying to desperately to get out from under that, to get away from it and the heartache and away from criminal law that has just saturated her, because every murder is like reliving that murder again. and she tries to get away and

the killer will not let her get away. >> he finds her, he thinks about her when he's in his cell, even. >> freaky. >> you're a working mom, a show host, a fiction writer, you're a nonfiction writer as well. >> well, i've actually been a fiction writer for ten years, because that's how long it took me to finish this book. >> so is there going to be another one? >> well, it's a two-book deal. robin, you don't have anything to worry about, but the next one's going to be in the tv industry, and a lot of tv, you're going to die. >> isn't of nancy grace, it should be nancy drew, in a way. >> i only wish i could be as insightful as nancy drew. >> what about a movie? could we see this being a movie and who would you want to play hailey dean? >> well, i've said charlize theron, and i promised anderson

cooper a lead role, but he really didn't respond. >> we have more with nancy right after this. )d)d)d)d)d)d)d)d)d)dd